SARGODHA: In light of the directions of the Punjab governor, who is also the chancellor of public universities, the syndicate of University of Sargodha is set to decide in its meeting on Monday (today) the fate of illegally appointed officials during the last 10 years.

The development came after the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab submitted a report to the governor revealing over 4,500 illegal appointments in 12 public sector universities of the province. These illegal appointments (from BS-1 to 16, and BS-17 and above) were made without advertising the vacancies, against the rules and service laws with a financial impact of Rs6 billion.

The ACE recommended “strict legal action” against those who were involved in this scam.

According to a letter issued by the Governor Secretariat, the chancellor directed that the matter be placed before the syndicate to investigate the irregular/illegal appointments pointed out by the ACE Punjab director general.

The ACE report revealed that Sargodha university former vice chancellor (VC) Muhammad Akram Chaudhry made 997 illegal appointments during his tenures from 2010 to 11 and 2011 to 15, causing a loss of over Rs1.84bn to the public exchequer.

Similarly, former VC Dr Muhammad Ali made 46 illegal appointments from April to October 2011 and caused a loss of over Rs20 million to the exchequer. Former acting VC Dr Zahoorul Hassan Dogar made 52 illegal appointments during an interim charge from October 2015 to October 2016, and caused a loss of about Rs9m to the national treasury.

Illegal appointments were also made during the tenure of incumbent VC Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad against whom various complaints were also made for following in the footprints of his predecessors and causing a heavy loss to the university by shutting down various ongoing projects and making illegal appointments.

The Governor Secretariat has directed the university to submit a comprehensive report along with well-defined recommendations and details of the corrective actions suggested by the syndicate within 60 days.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2021